Beating the Blues
by Twisteddarkness225
Summary: After Luna receives a less than favorable response to her love letter for Sam, she comes home in tears. Unable to leave her alone in her time of need, her siblings set out to aid her in getting through healing her broken heart. Rated T to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

**So, after the recent episode 'L is for Love' I was struck with inspiration for a story that kept me awake until 1 a.m. in the morning. After work I powered my way through this so that I could post is ASAP. I was behind with my next chapter of Avoiding Estrangement anyway so I figured, why not postpone it a little longer (It will be up later this week) and strike while the iron is hot with this new idea? As always honest reviews and constructive criticism is appreciated.**

 **Beating the Blues part 1)**

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own The Loud House and make no money from this story.

The sound of the door slamming caught the attention of the ten siblings inside the living room of the Loud residence. All nine girls and the one boy turned their attention from the t.v. to the front door, seeing the third oldest child in their family. Luna, with tears streaming down her face, bolted up the stairs, softly crying the entire way. She was out of sight before any of her sisters or brother could even stand up, and then the sound of another door being slammed sounded from the second floor. After which, all of the ten other children rushed up the stairs, Lori attempting to cut off the other nine.

"Hold it!" She ordered, quickly stopping her younger siblings in their tracks. "I know that we're all wondering what's going on, but Luna looked very upset. So instead of just barging into her room all at once, I think it would be better to just have Luan go in and talk to her. The rest of us will wait in the hall. Got it?"

They all nodded in agreement and then proceeded the rest of the way in a slower, more organized manner. Luan stepped up to the door to her and Luna's room and gently knocked. There was no response, at least not one that she could hear, so she tried again and then slowly opened the door. She heard the soft sound of her older sister crying and stepped inside, closing the door behind her.

Once the door was closed, the others began to whisper among themselves. Earlier that day, Luna had been in high spirits. She had told Leni and Lori at school about how she had placed her love letter into the locker of her crush, an attractive blonde girl named Sam. And from what they had heard, it had seemed like things were going well for the short haired brunette. But clearly, something had happened since then.

"I don't get it." Lori said. "She said that Sam was smiling when she read the letter. What in the world could have gone wrong after that?"

"Maybe Sam already has someone." Leni said. "And she had to let Luna down."

"Hmm, no I don't think that's it. Luna would've known if Sam was in a relationship since they've hung out at lunch. Plus, again, she was smiling when she read Luna's letter. There has to be something else. I remember when I saw her after school she seemed like she was nervous about something. And she said that she would be home later because she had to be somewhere."

Lola gasped, "She must've gone to meet with Sam!"

"But why would she be so upset after that? You don't think that she got rejected do you?"

"Why would she get rejected?" Lynn asked. "She knew that Sam is single and Luna's awesome! What reason could she have to say 'no'?"

"Maybe she isn't interested in other girls." Lori thought aloud. "OR, it could be something more serious. What if Sam's parents are against same-gender relationships? Sam would have to say 'no' because her parents would never approve!"

"Oh. Em. Gosh!" Leni gasped. "Then they should totes be dating! It would be forbidden love! Just like in Rome-oh and Julie- Tee, by that really old writer guy!"

Lisa pinched the bridge of her nose. "It's Romeo & Juliet, Leni. By William Shakespeare. And I should certainly hope that Luna's love wouldn't turn out similar to that tragedy, considering that both the star crossed lovers die at the end."

Leni gasped in shock. "Oh no! Guys, we have to warn Luna!"

"No, Leni, that only happened in the story. It's not going to happen to Luna." Lori said, correcting her sister for what felt like the millionth time.

"So, Luna's going to be okay?"

The door to Luna and Luan's room suddenly opened, drawing their attention. Luan stepped out and shut the door behind her, barely able to stop herself from slamming it. None of her siblings could recall ever seeing the normally good humored girl so angry. Even Lori felt a little intimidated by the glowering brunette.

"Sorry Leni, but I don't think Luna is going to be okay. Not anytime soon, that is. Not after the crap she just had to go through."

"Luan! Watch your language around Lily!" Lori scolded. "What's going on? What did Luna tell you?"

"She told me about how she found a reply from Sam in her locker at the end of the school day today. She said she was really nervous about reading it and she went for a walk around the school a couple times before she finally read it. And it wasn't what she was hoping for. Here, take a look for yourself."

Luan handed Lori a sheet of paper that had been crumpled by her clenched fist. As Lori smoothed it out, she saw tear stains on it. Obviously Luna's. Some of the ink was a little blurry, but she could still make out the writing easily enough.

"So let's see what this says.

 _'To L. Loud,_

 _I can't believe you actually wrote me a sappy love letter like that! It's completely laughable that you think for even one second that I'd show even a tiny amount of interest in you! Even if I was interested in other girls, I could do way better than you. You're way too butch. Some people might even think you're just a gender-confused boy who dresses in drag. Do yourself a favor and just go crawl into a hole and stay there!_

 _Never to be yours,_

 _Sam.'_ "

All of the gathered Louds, aside of Luan, gaped in pure shock as Lori finished reading. They all immediately began to look angry once the shock subsided, Lori's face screwing up into a fierce scowl, her face flushed hot red.

"THAT...THAT...THAT LITTLE WITCH!" She shrieked. "Who the heck does she think she is, writing something so horrible to _my_ baby sister?! She will regret this! Luan!"

"Yeah?"

"I want you to break out the prank arsenal that you save for the first of April. I want you to give that heartless little you-know-what the worst day of her life!"

"Oh, trust me...I'll stay up all night if I have to." Luan said with a sinister chuckle. "I'll pummel her with as many pies as I can. So she can have her _just desserts_."

In an unusual turn of events, Luan's sisters and brother didn't groan in unison at her pun. Instead they all began to eagerly offer to help the Queen of Pranks. The ten huddled together and began to discuss their plans. However their planning was soon interrupted as their only missing sibling swung open her bedroom door.

"Y'know, I can hear you guys." she said, wiping some of the tears from her eyes. "And even though I appreciate that you're only trying to help me out, I don't want you to get involved. Just don't, okay? Let it be."

"But..." all ten of her siblings began.

"NO! I mean it! Just let me get through this on my own! I...I have to or I might not be able to move on. And besides, all you would be doing is giving Sam a reason to keep hassling me. It's bad enough knowing that I'll have to see her at school tomorrow."

"Luna, trust us." Lori said. "When we're done with her she'll think twice before saying or doing anything to you."

"Lori, please." Luna whimpered. "Please don't. I'm begging you. All of you."

Lori sighed and held out her arms towards Luna. The upset girl stepped over and leaned into the hug, allowing her tears to start flowing again as she found comfort in her older sister's embrace. She felt Lori start rubbing her back and she just let go. Burying her face into Lori's shoulder, she let all the pain she had been feeling flow freely out of her tear ducts. By the time she was done, all of her siblings had lost their desire for revenge. They looked at their sister with sympathy and joined Lori in comforting her with a group hug.

"Thanks dudes." Luna said as the hug came to an end, her tears having stopped. "I needed that, more than you could know."

"Well if you need another, just let us know." Lori said. "Same if you just want to talk with anyone. We'll make time for you, okay?"

"You got it, sis." Luna said. "But for now, is it cool if I just have some space? I want to just try and figure out what's next for me."

"Take as much time as you need. We'll be here if you need us." Lori said in an assuring tone.

"Yeah, and don't worry about our room." Luan said. "I'll just hang out downstairs until it's time for bed."

"Thanks Lu. I appreciate that. But don't stay out on my account. If you want to pop in and grab your stuff, just go ahead."

"Okay, but only if I really have to. And if I do, I promise to be quick about it."

Luna smiled a little and thanked her again before heading back into her room. She shut the door behind her and the rest of the Loud children began to head back downstairs. But they soon heard a noise emanating from within the room of the musician. It was violin music, and it carried a sadness within its notes. The Louds exchanged glances as they heard their sibling convey her emotions with each motion of the bow across the strings of the instrument. Tears came to their eyes, the music allowing them to empathize with their sister's emotions. A couple of them, like Lori and Luan, allowed their thoughts to return to getting back at the one who was responsible for Luna's misery, but they pushed those thoughts aside and honored the request Luna had made instead. Luckily they were all able to find ways to preoccupy themselves once they had gotten back downstairs, allowing their depressed sister the peace and solitude she desired.

-Loud House-

Later that day, the Loud family had all gathered for dinner as per usual. However, one seat remained empty as they all sat at the table for the meal. Mr. and Mrs. Loud easily noticed this and addressed their other children about the matter.

"Hey, where's Luna? She knows it's time to eat, right?" Queried Lynn Sr.

"Come to think of it, I haven't seen her at all since we got home." Rita said. "Is she not feeling well?"

"Not exactly." Lori said in response. "There's something that you two should know. And just to give you a heads up, you aren't going to like it."

Lori excused herself from the table and retrieved the rejection letter that was the cause of Luna's woes. She had been tempted to rip the stupid thing to shreds. So very, very tempted to destroy the accursed paper with its foul, not to mention completely wrong, message written so spitefully towards her beloved sister. But she had restrained herself and instead set it aside. If anyone would revel in its destruction, then that pleasure was to be Luna's alone. But for now, it served as a visual aid as Lori told her mother and father of what had occurred that day. And it left them as peeved as all of their present children had been only mere hours earlier.

"The nerve of that horrible girl!" Rita spat as she finished reading the letter. "What is her last name? I want to see if she's one of Dr. Finestein's patients."

"What? Why?" Lori asked.

"Let's just say that if she is, she may find her next tooth cleaning to be particularly unpleasant. She deserves nothing less for daring to crush my precious baby girl's feelings like this!"

"Go mom!" Lola and Lana cheered in unison.

"No, that's not happening." Lynn Sr. said. "As much as I dislike knowing that any of our kids have been hurt, either physically or emotionally, I can't support that idea. Honey, you can't honestly want to jeopardize your career to get back at some shallow high school girl, do you?"

Rita sighed. "No, I wouldn't. Even though she has it coming."

"Rita, sweetheart, please."

"I know, I'm sorry Lynn. I just can't believe how cruel she was. A simple 'no' would have been enough, but she just had to go and utterly destroy Luna's feelings. I can't even begin to imagine what she felt."

"Well, let's go upstairs and talk with her." Lynn Sr. said, standing up and holding out his hand to his wife. "You kids stay down here and eat your dinner. Your mother and I will be back down shortly."

They all agreed and went about consuming their meal as their parents went upstairs to speak with Luna. After they had left, Lori began to idly play with her food. In the short time since her parents had returned home from work, she had been busily thinking about the matter. And even though she knew that Luna only wanted her space, she couldn't stop herself from thinking that she could do something to help her sister. That she _had_ to do something to help her.

"Hey, I want you all to listen up for a second." She stated firmly, "After dinner we are all going to meet in the basement to have an emergency sibling meeting. We need to talk about Luna."

"But Lori." Lincoln said. "She asked us not to do anything!"

"No, she asked us to stay out of what's going on between her and...and that little, shallow cow! That doesn't mean that she doesn't want us to try and help her through other means. We are her siblings and we have a responsibility to be there for her when she's feeling down. So I say that we try to think up ways to cheer her up and help her move on. I want to hear as many ideas as you can think of, so start asking yourselves: what can I do to help Luna feel better? Now get to eating, the sooner we finish dinner, the sooner we can start planning."

As their eldest sister's words sank in, a look of determination came to the faces of the younger Louds. They set to eating their meals quickly, all the while letting their brains move down their individual tracks of thought to a singular destination. One by one they finished ingesting their food and brought their dirty dishes to the kitchen sink before rushing down into the basement and seating themselves as they waited for the others. As the last of their group descended the steps, the meeting began and each of them started to voice their ideas. Not all of them would make it into the final plan, but that wasn't important to them. Because despite how different their ideas may have been, they were all in agreement with their goal.

Getting Luna back to her usual cheery and lively self was their top priority. And failure was _not_ an option.

 **End of Part 1**

 **Okay, so before anyone calls me out on it, I do NOT dislike Luna. The comments in the 'rejection letter' that she was given were purely to create a harsh impact for the sake of the story. I also have no problems with the pairing of Luna and Sam. In fact, I sincerely would love it to become canon. But I enjoy creating stories with conflict and this one quite literally put itself together as I was in bed Saturday night after having watched the new episode. I'm going to get to work on the next part soon and will have it up either before or after the new chapter for Avoiding Estrangement.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Glad to see the attention that this story has gotten so far. Let's see if I can keep this going. Also a thank you to zardX for the music recommendation. Music has always been my go to when I find myself stuck or simply just trying to think up new stuff. I strongly recommend it to other writers. With the right music and a good imagination, who knows what you could think up?**

 **Beating the Blues part 2)**

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own the Loud House and make no money from this story.

Luna turned over in her bed, getting slightly tangled in her sheets. She slowly opened her eyes, grumbling a little as she left the realm of sleep and returned to the waking world. The thought to remain in bed for a while longer crossed her mind, but she knew that she would have to get up eventually. School wasn't going to be canceled just because she had been rejected by her crush.

The idea of having to go to school made Luna groan. Now it was even more tempting to just curl up in her sheets again and close her eyes. She was not looking forward to having to go, knowing that she would almost certainly see Sam there. It was too soon for her to confront the girl for the things she had written. And it would be weird to just be near her, even if neither of them said anything to one another. At least she only had to get through the one day before the weekend finally started. Then she could just stay at home until Monday.

Climbing down from her bunk, Luna stepped over to the nightstand by Luan's lower bunk. The rejection letter was sitting by the lamp, folded neatly. Luna picked it up and opened it, smoothing out the wrinkles from when Luan had crushed it in her grip the preceding day. She looked over it again, feeling a pang in her heart as she reached the end of it.

 _'Way harsh, Sam.'_ Luna thought. _'I still can't believe that you actually feel that way. You think you know a girl. Wish I hadn't signed my name on that stupid love letter.'_

Luna shook her head, trying to banish the regretful thoughts trying to cloud her mind. She folded the letter in half and then tore it right down the middle. Then she stacked the two halves and tore them again and again, tossing the pieces into the air. As they fell to the floor, Luna went back to getting ready for the day. But as she made her way to get a change of clothes, she noticed something. The clock in her room...it showed that it was nearly nine in the morning.

"Oh crap!" Luna exclaimed in a panic. "I am gonna be so late for school! Why didn't anybody wake me up?!"

Rushing out of the room, Luna quickly noticed that none of her other siblings were in sight. And it was eerily quiet too, which made sense considering the time it was on a school day. But she just couldn't believe that they had ditched her like that! She was about to rush downstairs to check and see if at least one of her parents was home when she spotted movement from inside of Leni and Lori's room. To her relief, she saw Lori coming out into the hallway.

"Dude, am I glad to see you! I'm not gonna ask why you aren't at school, but please tell me that you can give me a ride!"

"Nope." Lori said. "You aren't going to school today, and besides, Dad has the van."

"Dang it! This sucks so hard! I'm gonna totally get it from my...wait. What?"

"Surprise! It took some convincing, but I got Mom and Dad to agree to let you stay home today. And I'm here to 'keep an eye on you'." Lori said, using her fingers to make air quotes. "And since we're both here, Lily doesn't need to be in daycare today. So she gets to hang out with her big sisters. Isn't that right, Lily?"

Luna then noticed that their infant sister was crawling on the floor by Lori's feet. The little blonde sat down and waved up at Luna, a big, bright smile on her face. Lori picked the baby girl up and she began heading towards the stairs, motioning for Luna to follow.

"Go and make yourself comfortable on the couch. I'll get your breakfast for you. A certain someone, and I think you can guess who, got up extra early this morning so he could make you some strawberry muffins. The twins nearly tore him apart when they saw what he had. Luckily for him, Dad stepped in and stopped them before they ate any."

A small smile came to Luna's face at the thought of her little brother going through all that trouble just for her. And on a school day too. She made a mental note to give him a proper thank you later on when he got home. But for now, crashing on the couch with Lily and taking it easy for the day was her only objective.

Grabbing hold of the remote, Luna turned on the t.v. and flipped through the channels until she found a music channel that featured rock music, rock music videos and recordings of rock concerts dating back to the genre's beginnings. She was particularly pleased that there was currently a Mick Swagger song playing. One of her favorites too. But just as she was beginning to feel the music and start singing along with the lyrics, she had a moment of realization. And then her good mood died and she felt bitter melancholy take over.

"Alright, sorry I took so long." Lori said as she entered the room with a plate of pink, fluffy muffins and a tall glass of chocolate milk. "But I thought you might want them warm, so I popped them into the microwave. I also got you something to wash them down."

Lori set the plate and the glass down on the coffee table in front of Luna. She looked at the t.v., smiling as she saw what was on the screen. It was good to see her sister already finding something to take her mind off of things. Although she found it odd that Luna wasn't singing and it was even more odd that the volume wasn't raised to the max yet. That was when she looked at her sister and noticed that she was looking glum instead of glad.

"Luna, what's wrong? Why do you look so down when _Mick Swagger_ is on?"

"It's nothing, sis."

Lori stood between the couch and the t.v., blocking the screen from view. She placed her hands on her hips and looked down at Luna with one eyebrow raised in question. Luna sat up and set the remote down on the table. A sigh passed through her lips before she met Lori's gaze, knowing that it was better to just come out and say what was bothering her. She knew that Lori was there to help, and for that to happen she would need to be able to communicate with her. Even if it was just about the little things.

"The first time I talked with Sam, she overheard me talking about my favorite Mick Swagger songs. Turns out that she likes the same ones as me, and the one that's on right now is her most favorite. When she told me, she started to sing it and I just joined in with her. After that we became friends and eventually I started to realize that I liked her. You know, as in I _liked_ her liked her."

"Oh, Luna...I'm so sorry." Lori said, taking a seat next to her sister. She placed an arm around her and gave her a quick hug. "Maybe it would be a good idea to just find something else to watch for now."

She picked the remote up and shut the t.v. off. After setting it back down she got up and began to make her way to the stairs. As she passed by Lily, the infant raised her arms, signaling that she wanted to be picked up. Lori complied with the little girl's desires and started to head up the stairs, telling Luna that she would be right back down.

While she waited for Lori to do whatever it is that she was doing, Luna started to eat one of the muffins on her plate. The moment the warm, sweet, moist treat met her tongue she suddenly felt a little better. She finished off the rest of the baked good and then took a couple sips from her glass of chocolate milk, grabbing a second muffin to eat. By the time she was halfway done with it, Lori had returned from upstairs.

"So, what did you need to get, sis?" Luna asked.

"My laptop. Dad wrote down a list of his favorite cat videos that he recommended for you to watch. He said that when he needs a reason to smile, they always do the trick. And Luan picked out a bunch of favorite comedy dvds too. Plus, Lily wanted her blankie."

Lori set Lily back down onto the couch with Luna and then set up her laptop. She opened up the internet and had Luna pick out which cat vidoe on the list she wanted to start with. As the first video started, Lori went back into the kitchen. In exchange for being allowed to stay home for the day, she was expected to do some chores as well as keep an eye on Lily. So while Luna lounged, snacked and watched internet videos, Lori would do the dishes and clean the stove, among other things.

She heard a burst of laughter from the living room, accompanied by childish giggling. A smile came to Lori's face as she listened to the noise. It was nice to know that the ideas she and all of the others had come up with were working so far. And there was still plenty left on the list along with more than enough time to execute them all. It was simply a matter of whether or not Luna was up for them.

By the time she had finished all of the kitchen related chores she had been asked to do, Luna had gone through a considerable number of cat videos and all of the strawberry muffins. Although when Lori went in to check on the two, she saw a few crumbs around Lily's mouth as well, which she gently wiped away. She then picked up the empty plate and glass, offering Luna a refill which she politely declined.

"Okay, but if you change your mind, just let me know. What about you Lily? Would you like some chocolate milk?"

No sooner had Lori made the offer than Lily's eyes lit up in excitement and she began to bounce restlessly on the couch. Lori giggled at the cute response, taking it as an obvious 'yes'. She went back into the kitchen to prepare the promised beverage to her littlest sister, as well as grab a few other things. Meanwhile, Luna made herself more comfortable on the couch by laying down as a somewhat longer cat video started up. And just as Luna finished readjusting herself, Lily shakily stood up on the couch and then draped her blankie over Luna's upper body.

"Aww, you're gonna share your blankie with me? Thanks little dudette."

Lily leaned over, giving Luna as big a hug as her small body would allow and kissed her on her cheek.

"Ah bedder" she said.

Luna's eyes moistened with joy from the simple gesture. She hugged her baby sister back and nuzzled her affectionately.

"You are totally awesome, little sis! Thank you so much! I feel loads better now!"

Lily giggled and sank into her sister's embrace, making herself cozy. The two watched the cat video together, Luna now enjoying it more with Lily cuddling with her. Lori reentered the room a couple minutes later with Lily's bottle and a new plate with some microwavable french toast sticks, topped with powdered sugar and maple syrup. Luna was able to smell the delicious breakfast food before Lori was able to set it down on the table in front of her. She looked at the plate and then up at her sister in complete surprise.

"Dude, where were those? I thought we ran out of those a couple days ago!"

"We did. But I know how much you like them so I went out and got some from Flip's. They cost a little more, but no biggie. I also picked up your favorite brand of root beer and your favorite frozen treat too."

Luna's eyes widened, as did the smile on her face. "You got me some 'Gwen and Terry's'?"

Lori nodded, "Marshmallow-Cookie Mosh-Pit."

The thought of her favorite type of ice cream made Luna's mouth water. It was a rich, creamy, chocolate flavor with mini marshmallows and globs of chocolate chip cookie dough mixed into it. Every bite was packed with the triple tasty goodness that made her taste buds dance with delight. She'd easily gobble the whole container down in mere minutes, regardless of having to deal with any brain freeze afterwards. It was a sacrifice well worth the reward.

"Thanks, Lori. You didn't have to."

"You're right. I didn't have to. But I wanted to. Trust me when I say that comfort foods can make a world of difference when dealing with a broken heart. And a good movie too. Especially something that makes me cry. It helps to get all the sadness out of my system."

"Whatever works for you, sis." Luna said, "But I think that I did enough crying yesterday. Don't really want to get the water works started again."

"That's alright. That's why Luan and Dad wrote down all of those suggestions for you. So, how are they working?"

"Let's put it this way; if I watch just one more cat video, I think I might die from cuteness overload. Might be time to put in one of Luan's comedy movies."

"Okay, which one would you like to watch?" Lori asked as she went to a stack of Dvds Luan had set aside that morning.

"Hmmm, surprise me."

Lori looked through the options and picked out one that looked suitable to Luna's taste. She turned the t.v. back on and then the Dvd player, putting the disc into the tray. As the movie started, Luna sat back up so she could eat her french toast sticks while she watched. She passed Lily's bottle to her, which the infant began to greedily drink from. Lori then left the two again, as she needed to continue with her list of chores which included washing everyone's bed sheets and then making the beds for them. And while they were in the wash, she would be taking over Luna's chore of vacuuming, starting with all of the upstairs bedrooms.

As the movie progressed, Luna resumed lounging on the couch with Lily at her side. After a short while, Lori had to come downstairs to check on the first load of sheets and then she returned to vacuuming. Luna paused the movie so Lori could take care of the living room really quick and then she moved on, allowing Luna to resume watching the comedy.

A short while later, once she had finished with the floors and gotten the next load of sheets started, Lori joined Luna on the couch. The first movie was nearly over, but Lori didn't mind. She was more interested in her phone's screen. Her thumbs began to tap the screen repeatedly as she succumbed to her daily habit.

"Dude, who are you texting?" Luna asked. "Shouldn't everyone be in school? You know, in class?"

"Yep. But just because they can't reply doesn't mean I can't text them. Besides, I need to make sure Leni doesn't forget to pick up your homework from your teachers. Sorry about that, by the way. Another of Mom and Dad's conditions."

"It's cool." Luna said with a shrug. "I kinda expected that anyway. Thanks again for talking the 'rents into letting me stay home today."

Lori smiled and wrapped her arm around Luna in another hug. Luna sank into the embrace and just stayed there, leaning against her older sister and holding Lily in her lap. The movie ended and Lori set down her phone in favor of the remote, switching it back to the selection of t.v. channels. She channel surfed for a while until she found something for them to watch, trying to stick with Luna's preferences.

The morning soon came to an end and the afternoon began, the three sisters still idly relaxing on the couch and watching whatever they found on that seemed worth viewing. Around half past noon, the front door opened and Lynn Sr. walked into the house. In one hand he held a beverage tray with two large sodas and a small bottle of juice. His other hand held a large brown paper bag and a smaller paper bag with colorful designs on it. Both bags and both cups had the logo of the Burpin' Burger on them, which immediately caught the attention of the two teens on the couch.

"Hey pops!" Luna greeted. "Those for us?"

"You know it." he answered. "I thought I'd use my lunch hour today to get a little something for you three. You seem to be in a good mood, Luna. Feeling better?"

Luna nodded. "Yeah, thanks. Getting to take it easy today was a huge help."

"Well I hope you thanked your sister. She just wouldn't take 'no' for an answer when she told us about this idea of hers. Anyway, I can' t stay long. I need to get back to work before my hour is up and my ride is waiting outside. I'll see you later, okay? Love you!"

Lynn Sr. left as quickly as he arrived, leaving his girls to enjoy their meals. Lori fetched Lily's high chair from the dining room and set her into it, making sure to also get a bib for her. She opened up the bag containing Lily's Junior Burpee meal and took out everything aside of the toy which she would get after she ate. And as Lily began to eat and play with her food, Luna reached into the other bag to get her own meal.

"Hey, Lori?"

"Yes?"

"Dad said he had a ride waiting. But earlier, you said that he had Vanzilla, right?"

"That's right. He left Vanzilla behind so we can use it this afternoon. You didn't think that all you would be doing today was laze around the house, did you? We came up with a bunch of other ideas. Just you wait, little sister. You'll see once the school day is over. Then _your_ day will officially begin"

 **End of Part 2.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Apologies for the long wait on this new chapter. Been a little preoccupied with people going on vacation where I work, resulting in longer hours for me. Also trying to get the usual head start on my annual tradition of coming up with a story for the holidays. But since there is still plenty of time for that, I can now present...**

 **Beating the Blues Part 3)**

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own the Loud House and make no money from this story.

A satisfied sigh passed through Luna's lips as she set down the now empty container of Gwen and Terry's Marshmallow-Cookie Mosh-Pit. She savored the very last bite of the frozen treat as it melted on her tongue, coating it with it's sweet, delicious flavors. The melted ice cream oozed over the back of her tongue and into her throat. She swallowed it and then chewed up the chunks of cookie dough that were left before swallowing them as well. The tip of her tongue slipped out and ran over her lips, seeking any remaining traces that may be left over. Then she licked the spoon she had been using clean as well, setting into the container afterwards.

"Thanks again, Lori. That really hit the spot." She said, leaning back on the couch. "Think I might just take a little nap while we're waiting for everybody else to get home from school."

"Then go right ahead. Now seems like a great time for nap-time." Lori said as she picked up Lily. "And that means you too. Come on, let's take your blankie and set you down in your crib for a little bit, okay?"

Lori picked up Lily's blanket and brought the infant upstairs. Luna took the opportunity to fully stretch out on the couch, resting her head on the armrest. She closed her eyes and soon drifted off into a light sleep, a smile on her face.

A short while later, the sudden and loud sound of the front door flying open snapped Luna out of her catnap. The slamming noise caught her by such surprise that she nearly fell off of the couch, letting out a yelp just before she caught herself. She sat up and looked over at the entrance to find her sister Leni was the cause of the unwelcome disturbance to her slumber.

"Dude! What gives? You nearly made me jump out of my skin!"

Leni offered her younger sister a small smile as she blushed a little. "Sorry, Luna. I totes didn't mean to scare you. I'm just so excited! Did Lori tell you yet?"

Luna shrugged, "Not really. She mentioned that you guys had stuff planned for today. But she kept most of the details secret. All I know is that we're going to be heading out once everybody else gets home."

"WE'RE GOING TO THE MALL!" Leni shrieked ecstatically. "We are, like, going to have the _best_ time together! We'll get smoothies and shop for shoes and dresses and tops and..."

Leni began to ramble on and on about the mall. Luna didn't interrupt, but did have to start tuning her out when she started to repeat some of the things they could go shopping for. Fortunately it didn't take very long for Leni to finally manage to come to a stop. She stepped over to the couch and looked at her younger sister with a wide smile and her eyes shining with excitement. Apparently Luna had missed Leni asking her something at some point.

"Uh, yeah. We're totally gonna have a good time today!" she said, smiling awkwardly.

"Totes!" Leni elatedly agreed. "I can't wait for everyone else to get home so we can get going! Um, by the way, you aren't planning on going out like _that_ are you?"

Leni gestured to Luna's current attire. Luna, realizing that she was still only in her nightshirt, blushed a little. She smiled sheepishly while scratching the back of her head as she looked up at her sister.

"Yeah, I guess I was so busy lazing around today that I forgot to get dressed. Haven't showered yet either."

"Ew!" Leni said in mild disgust. "That's a no-no, Luna! Come on, let's get you upstairs so you can wash up!"

Before Luna could grasp what was happening, Leni had managed to pick her up bridal style and began to carry her to the stairs. Luna's blush grew and she squirmed in her older sister's arms, not the least bit amused by the unexpected as well as embarrassing treatment.

"Dude, I can walk there myself! You don't need to carry me!" She protested.

"Like, I know. But I wanted to help. That's what today is supposed to be all about, silly."

Luna sighed and crossed her arms, just letting Leni have her way. "Well you don't need to help _this_ much. Just saying, sis."

Leni shrugged a little in response and proceeded the rest of the way to the bathroom. Luna was glad when they entered and Leni finally put her back down. Then Leni started to run the hot water, adjusting it until it was at the right temperature. But instead of taking her leave and letting Luna have some privacy, Leni surprised Luna a second time when she grabbed the brunette's shirt.

"Lift up your arms, please."

"Wait, wha...? _DUDE!_ "

The sound of Luna's voice carried out the bathroom and down to the opposite end of the hall. Inside of Lily's room, Lori looked up from her place sitting on Lisa's bed. She looked over at Lily, who was still napping soundly despite the noise. Then the sound of a door being slammed caught Lori's attention and she got up to investigate. Peeking out into the hall, she found Leni standing outside of the bathroom, holding Luna's clothes in her hands.

At first, Lori had been annoyed with the disturbance. But now she was more curious than anything. She went over to her sister, who met her partway as she approached.

"What was that all about?" Lori questioned the younger blonde.

"I was just helping Luna." Leni replied. "But I think maybe I went a little too far when I undressed her. She seemed kinda mad."

The corners of Lori's mouth tugged upwards as she imagined the scene her sister had just put into her head.

"You literally didn't! I wish I could have seen the look on her face!"

"It was kinda like the one she gave me when I was carrying her up the stairs just now."

Lori snorted out a short laugh. "Oh, wow. She must have _loved_ that!" she said with a touch of sarcasm.

"She would've if it had been Sam who was carrying her." Leni said with a giggle.

Leni's eyes went wide as she suddenly realized what she had said. Her hands flew up to cover her mouth, Luna's clothes falling to the floor. She looked sheepishly over at Lori, who offered a stern glare in return.

"You're lucky that Luna didn't hear that. We're trying to get her mind off of that girl, which means no mentioning her name. Don't slip up like that again. Got it?"

Leni nodded and picked up Luna's clothes from the floor. Lori took them to bring downstairs to the basement so they could be placed with other articles of dirty clothing that were waiting to be washed. Meanwhile, Leni took Lori's place watching over Lily while she napped. Her eyes fell on the form of the sleeping baby and she smiled. She ended up watching her younger sister from the side of the crib, pure adoration in her eyes. It was such a precious sight, she could have stayed there for hours.

 _"AHH! DUDE!"_

Lily sniffled, the sound of Luna shouting having roused her from her nap. She began to whimper and Leni picked her up before she started to cry. Gently rubbing Lily's back to soothe her, Leni stepped over to the door and peeked out into the hallway. For a moment, she saw nothing at all. But then the bathroom door opened, and Luna walked out, wrapped in a towel. And following her out of the bathroom was Lucy, with whom Luna seemed somewhat irked.

"I wasn't trying to sneak up on you, Luna. I don't try to sneak up on anyone. It just...sort of happens."

"Well next time, just knock, okay? Cuz I didn't even hear you open or close the bathroom door." Luna said.

"Oh, well that's because I didn't use the door. I came in through the air vent."

Luna looked over at the bathroom and saw that the cover to the air vent was in fact open, the grate dangling from the ceiling. And while that certainly explained how Lucy got into the bathroom without using the door, it did raise one other question for Luna.

"Why?" the rocker asked, mostly out of confusion.

"It's fun." Lucy stated simply in reply.

"Ooo-kay. Whatever works for you, dudette." Luna said with a shrug. "I'm gonna go and get dressed now."

"Actually, that's the reason I wanted to see you. I have some clothes in my room that I'd like you to try on."

"Uh, no offense Luce. But I don't really think that anything you'd wear is really my style. Besides, it's not like any of your clothes would fit me anyway."

"They aren't exactly _my_ clothes." the gothic girl said, taking her older sister's hand and leading her to the room she shared with Lynn. "I had always hoped that one day my siblings would embrace the darkness like I have. So I got outfits for all of you just for such an occasion. Now seems as good a time as any for yours, after what you've been through."

Luna gave her sister an incredulous look. And while she was still not entirely sure about it, she opted to at least let her little sister show her the clothes she had in mind. She was only trying to do something to help her feel better, so the least Luna could do was humor her. And who knew? Maybe she'd like the threads the spooky girl had picked for her.

Just one minute later, Luna found herself staring in awe at a coffin full of neatly folded outfits. Each one was something akin to Lucy's own usual attire and labeled with the name of a different sibling. There was even a black onesie in Lily's size with the words 'little bloodsucker' in red lettering on the front. Lucy picked up the outfit with Luna's name on it and held it out to her.

"Here, these should fit you just right." she said.

Luna took the clothes, giving them a brief look over before returning her attention to Lucy. She almost asked just how the girl knew her measurements, but decided it might be better if she didn't know the answer to that. Although there was something else that was peaking her curiosity.

"So, you really have outfits for all of us. How long have you had them?"

"About a year or so." Lucy answered. "I got the idea when I saw Lincoln dressed in all black. It suited him. So I started to wonder how the rest of you would look. And now, at last, I get to see. Even if it's only one of you."

There was the smallest trace of emotion in the younger girl's voice. Luna was unable to place it at first, but she quickly recognized it as joy. Or rather, Lucy's equivalent of that emotion. Now Luna felt like she had to try on the clothes. She just hoped that if she didn't like them that it wouldn't bum Lucy out too much. The girl was gloomy as it was, she didn't want to contribute to that, even if only a little.

"Okay sis." Luna said. "Let me go and try these new threads on. Come over to my room in a couple minutes and we'll see how they look on me."

A small nod was all that Luna got in response from the quiet goth. She left her sisters' room and returned to her own to get dressed. As she shut her door behind her, she took a closer look at the clothes. The outfit was made up of a pair of leggings with white and violet horizontal stripes, a black skirt that was made to look tattered near the bottom, and the top was a solid black tank top with which had frayed arm holes and an image of a skull on its front side that had what looked like vampire fangs in place of the regular canines. There was also pair of lacy, finger-less, fishnet gloves, which went up to the elbows of her arms.

"Hmm, not bad. These are pretty comfy." Luna said to herself once she had donned the outfit. "Gotta hand it to the spooky dudette. She's got some decent taste."

"Thanks."

Luna jumped, a yelp of surprise escaping her for the second time that hour. Once again, she found Lucy standing right behind her. Her younger sister gave, as far as Luna could tell, an apologetic look.

"Sorry, again."

"It's okay little sis." Luna said, smiling. "To be fair, I should've seen that coming. But like I was saying, these are some sweet duds you picked out for me. I take back what I said about them not being my style. It's actually pretty close to something I might've picked out for myself."

"To be honest, I did try to keep in mind your personalities when I got these. And you were one of the easier ones. Lynn was the toughest. Even Leni could pull off the goth look better, and she's a ray of sunshine."

Luna giggled and pulled her younger sister in for a hug. "You're too much sometimes, you know that, kid? Anyway, do you mind if I make an addition to the new look you picked for me? I got something in the closet that would look pretty sick."

Lucy nodded and Luna stepped over to her closet. She rummaged around for a couple moments before pulling out a large, black, leather belt with square, stainless steel studs set into it in a set of four rows. It was too large in size to fit it's proper purpose, but that's why Luna had gotten it in the first place. Once it was on, it hung loosely around her hips at an angle, but not so much as to make it fall down around her feet.

"So, what do you think?" Luna asked her sister while she struck a pose.

"Wicked." Lucy said, giving Luna a thumbs up. "Now all we need is to do something about your complexion. It's far too sunny. A little make up will do until you can become naturally pale, like me."

"Uh, let's just stick with the outfit for now." Luna said with a nervous smile. "Wouldn't want to rush into anything, y'know?"

"Suit yourself." Lucy said with a shrug. "As long as you're being true to yourself, it doesn't matter to me. But if you even want some help looking for more clothing like that, just let me know."

"You got it, sis. Since we're heading to the mall, maybe we can look around a bit today? You up for that?"

Lucy nodded, the corners of her mouth turning up the tiniest bit. The two left the room and went downstairs, finding their three blonde sisters in the living room. They joined them on the couch and began to wait for the rest of their siblings to come home from school. Soon enough, Luan entered the door along with Lincoln, Lisa and the twins trailing in behind her. Luna found herself being swarmed by her younger siblings, who offered her hugs and asked her questions almost all at once. If not for Lori's intervention, Luna may have been overwhelmed.

The shrill noise of a whistle sounded in the ears of the ten younger Loud children. A Pavlovian response triggered in each of them and they all lined up in a row from oldest to youngest. Lori smirked at the reaction of her siblings, like a well-oiled machine. She stood before them and twirled the car keys in her hand.

"Okay, now that we're all home, it's time to go over our plan for the rest of the afternoon." she stated clearly to them all. "Since all of the younger kids need to be home before sunset, they get to be first to spend time with Luna and then I'll bring them home. After that, we older girls will get to stay out until midnight, courtesy of Mom and Dad."

"Really?" Luna asked, her eyes lighting up. "Sweet!"

"That it is, little sister. All just for you too." Lori continued. "So, I think it's only fair that we let Luna decide what order we do things in once we get to the mall. Each of you will say your idea one at a time, starting with Lynn."

Lynn stepped forward and was about to speak, but then something clicked in her mind. A sour expression came to her face and she glared up at Lori.

"Hey, does that mean I'm with the little kids? Why can't I stay out late like the rest of you? I'm thirteen!"

"One, you're not able to stay up that late. You'll literally be asleep before ten-thirty. Two, you have practice for two of your sports teams tomorrow and you know you'll need a full night's sleep. And three, Mom and Dad said so."

"Fine." Lynn said, accepting Lori's reasons without question. "But next time, I'm getting to stay up with the rest of you! Anyway, I want to take Luna to my favorite skate shop to hook her up with some sweet new roller-blades. That way she and I can go out on nice days and roll around the neighborhood for a while."

Lori nodded and motioned for Lincoln to step forward next. The solitary male sibling did so, turning to look at Luna as he spoke.

"I think it would be a good idea to hit up Gus' Games and Grub after the mall. We can get pizza for dinner and play games for a little while. And I want to win Luna a prize."

Luna felt her heart swell a little at her brother's words. She stepped out of the line and gave him a hug, ruffling his hair affectionately. At this point the other Louds also broke free of the linear formation and proceeded to continue voicing their contributions to their sister.

"I want to take you to the pet store!" Lana exclaimed. "With all the cool animals they have there, you'll be too distracted to care about anything else!"

"Forget that!" Lola cut in. "What you need is a nice, relaxing trip to the 'Royal Beauty Nail Salon & Spa'. You'll feel like a brand new woman!"

Lana rolled her eyes at her twin's suggestion. Lola noticed this and threw a dirty look at the dirty girl. Luna could sense that a fight may end up starting soon and stepped in between them.

"They're both awesome ideas, little dudettes. You both rock!"

The tension between the two six year olds vanished instantly and they smiled up at their older sister. With the possibility of a fight between them gone for the time being, Luna turned her attention to Lisa next.

"Well Luce and I already talked about what we can do. So that just leaves you, Leese. What did your super-brain think up?"

"To be honest, my initial idea was something much more satisfactory than anything else that has been suggested so far. I wanted to clone Sam for you, so that you could..."

"Mom and Dad already made it perfectly clear!" Lori interrupted. "NO CLONING!"

"Dang it." Lisa muttered. "I'm never going to get to clone anyone. Regardless, I saw to it to find something else to help contribute to the cause. So I secured enough funds to pay for a trip to the movie theater, including the cost of beverages and popcorn. Being among the younger siblings, I will not be able to attend. But it's more important that you enjoy yourself, Luna."

A collective 'aw' sounded from the other ten when they heard Lisa's words. The little genius found herself receiving a hug from her elder sister. Normally she wasn't fond of spontaneous physical contact, but she was more than willing to make an exception in this case. She didn't even mind the fact that Luna had lifted her up off of the floor, which was something that she normally detested.

"I can't believe how much you guys are doing for me." Luna said as she set Lisa back down. "Could you make things any more awesome?"

Lori smirked. "Well, I think we can. Because in addition to Lisa's contribution, everything else we do for you today is paid for by myself, Leni and Luan."

Luna stared at her older sister in momentary disbelief before a wide grin broke out on her face. "Okay, it's official. You dudes are all the best! I can't believe that you're all going so far, just to make me feel better! But you don't have to be spending your money on stuff for me."

"You're worth every penny!" Luan said. "Besides, most of it is just what I took out of my funds for pranks and comedy props. No biggie. So what do you want to do first?"

"Hmmm, well..." Luna mused briefly. "Since we'll be saving the movie for last, and going for pizza and games just before that, how about we hit up the pet store first? Then we can check out some stores including the skate shop and anything Leni and Lucy have in mind. After that we can swing by the salon so Lola can set me up with whatever she has in mind. Everyone cool with that?"

Her siblings all nodded in unison, each of them with a determined look in their eyes. Luna felt a single tear slide down her face, unable to hold in the amount of joy that they were making her feel. After taking a little time to set aside their things from school and use the bathroom if necessary, the eleven of them left the house and got into Vanzilla. Luna was given both the sweet spot and control over the radio, Lincoln working the dials and buttons at her request from his place in the front seat.

"So, ready to move on to the best part of your day, Luna?" Lori asked as she turned the key in Vanzilla's ignition, the engine roaring to life.

"You bet, sis! I'm ready to rock this town!" Luna said, pumping her fist into the air.

"Then let's roll!" Lori said, putting Vanzilla into reverse and backing out of the driveway.

A collective cheer sounded from the Loud kids as they began their trip to the Royal Woods Mall. The volume on the radio was cranked up, rock music blasting from the van's one working speaker. Luna began to sing the lyrics and was soon joined by those among her siblings who also knew the song. The whole ride up they kept at it and once they finally arrived at their destination, they ended up staying in Vanzilla a short while longer to make it through just one more song. Luna was all smiles, having had a blast the entire time. Her day just kept getting better, and yet things had only just begun.

 **End of Part 3.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Apologies for the really long wait on this next part (let's hope I don't need to repeat that again, lol). Hopefully this next part will be interesting enough to make up for it.**

 **Beating the Blues Part 4)**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own the Loud House and make no money from this story.

Luna giggled at the feel of the puppy's tongue tickling her cheek. The tiny dachshund's tail wagged back and forth rapidly the entire time she was holding her. Leni and Lori smiled widely as they respectively took pics and recorded video of their sister with the three month old pup. By the time she had to give the adorable bundle back to the clerk, she had a small coat of dog-saliva coating her cheek and a smile on her face to match Leni's and Lori's. The daschund let out a little bark before turning her attention to the young man now holding her, tail still wagging like a fast metronome.

"Wow." Luna said with a smirk. "Just went and forgot all about me, didn't you? You're lucky you're so cute, little dudette."

"Cute enough for you to give her a good home?" the clerk asked.

"I wish I could." the brunette said apologetically. "But I haven't run the idea by my Mom and Pop. They wouldn't be too crazy about me bringing home a new pet. Especially since we already got other pets. But who knows? Maybe I'll be back after I talk to them."

"That's alright." the clerk said. "But just don't be surprised if by that time this little puppy has already been adopted by someone else. Not that it should keep you from thinking about any of our other little, furry friends. Any of them would love a nice home too."

"I'll keep that in mind. But for now, I think I'll just keep looking around."

"By all means. And if you need anything, just let me or one of my associates know."

Luna turned and joined her older sisters as the clerk put the little dachshund back with the other puppies. The trio of teens began to look around at the other animals that were in the pet store, their younger siblings dispersed throughout the aisles. In front of them was a set of shelves with terrariums housing some lizards and snakes. One of them caught Lori's eyes and she immediately put her hand onto Leni's shoulder, shaking it gently.

"Oh, look at those!" She said, pointing with her free hand towards a wall at the far end of the aisle. "Little outfits for smaller dogs. Aren't they cute, Leni?"

Leni gasped, her pupils dilating at the sight. "They totes are!" She gushed before rushing forward to get a closer look at the pet-sized fashion selections. Lori breathed a soft sigh of relief and wiped her brow. Luna gave her a questioning look and Lori pointed to a large tarantula sitting in it's little home on the shelves just in front of them, on their left. The eight legged creature was facing them, its chelicerae moving as it stared up at the two teens. If Leni had seen that, there was zero chance that she wouldn't have freaked out big time.

"Good call, sis." Luna whispered. "Let's catch up with her before she comes back."

Lori nodded and the two proceeded down to where Leni was currently admiring a little pink sweater for lapdogs. Lana was nearby, inspecting some squeaky toys on display on the end-cap of the aisle. She was currently looking over a blue doggie bone that she had found among the toys. Luna stepped over and observed as Lana squeezed it in her hands, a loud squeak coming from the toy's middle.

"Hmmm, not bad. Firm, but still should be easy enough to chew on. Nice color too. Could be a little bigger though."

"I don't think that would make a huge diff." Luna told her. "I bet Charles would be stoked to have it!"

"Oh, yeah. He probably would! Maybe I should get it for him instead." Lana said. "Or some doggie treats. That way we can share."

Luna giggled and shook her head. Lana smiled. She hadn't intended to make Luna laugh, but wasn't about to argue with it. Putting the squeaky toy back, she and Luna went to look through the many other pets that were available in the store. They entered an area with all sorts of smaller mammals including mice, rats, hamsters and guinea pigs in their little habitrails. Lana went up to the nearest one and started to fawn over the adorable little critters. Luna would have joined her, but there was something else that caught her attention first.

"Oh no." Luna whispered nervously before ducking down as quickly as she could.

"What's wrong?" Lana asked, looking around for whatever it was that had Luna worried.

"She's here!" Luna whispered.

"Who?"

"Sam! She just walked into the store! Do me a solid little sis and help me sneak out of here before she sees me! I'm not ready to face her yet!"

Lana nodded, a determined look in her eyes. She looked around the corner to keep an eye on Sam as she walked through the store. After a moment she leaned over towards Luna and smirked confidently at her.

"I got an idea. Stay low and I'll make a distraction for you."

The first grader went around the corner and out of Luna's sight. Luna waited, expecting something to happen that would serve as her cue to sneak towards the store entrance. A moment later she got it, when Leni let out a very loud shriek.

"SPIDER!"

Luna began moving, keeping herself crouched down to try and stay out of sight. Leni's freak out didn't last very long, but hopefully it served it's purpose. As Luna got closer to the door, she dared to peek over and see whether or not Sam was looking her way. Fortunately for her, she wasn't at that moment. Unfortunately however, she soon found herself blocked by a tall man in a blue button down shirt with a red tie and a name-tag. A name-tag with the words 'store manager' on it.

"Young lady." the manager said calmly. "May I help you?"

"Huh?" Luna said, standing upright. "Uh, no thanks. I was just on my way out."

"I noticed." he said bluntly. "But I'd appreciate it if you'd pay for whatever items you have with you first, please."

"Say what?!" the rocker blurted out in shock, quickly covering her mouth the next moment. She took a quick look to make sure that Sam hadn't heard her, thankfully she hadn't, and then turned back to face the manager. "You got the wrong idea dude, uh, sir. I'm no thief! Here, look!"

Luna patted spread her arms wide and showed she clearly had nothing on her that didn't belong. And with her new outfit not possessing a way for her to hide anything, not even pockets in the skirt, she got her point across quite easily. Not that it did much to waver the man's suspicions.

"Well, then perhaps you could care to explain what you were doing sneaking down the aisle just now?"

"Oh...that." She said, rubbing the back of her neck and sparing another moment to glance over in Sam's direction. "I was just trying to...avoid someone who I don't really get along with. That's all."

"I see. Well, no harm done then I suppose. My apologies for the inconvenience. Have a nice day."

He left and Luna gave him a dirty look once his back was towards her. She had a strong urge to make a rude gesture too, but restrained herself. Inconvenience her foot, she knew what had really been going on. It wouldn't have been the first time she had been judged poorly by her style and she knew it wouldn't be the last. Sure, maybe sneaking around hadn't helped, but still...

 _'Dude needs to work on his people skills. His apology sucked.'_ she thought. _'But whatever. I should head out anyway. There's loads of other things I can do with the fam.'_

Luna left the store, making sure to let one of her siblings know she was on her way out. Spotting Lori and Leni, she waved them over and then stepped off to the side. Her older sisters joined her, Lori texting on her phone.

"Okay, Luna, where to next?" She asked, her thumbs dancing across the screen.

"I dunno. Anywhere's cool with me." Luna said with a disinterested shrug.

"Are you okay?" Leni asked. "You look a little sad."

"I'm not sad, Lens. It's just...the jerkwad manager in there thought I was trying to steal something. I think he was profiling me."

Lori froze briefly. Then her head snapped up and her eyes narrowed.

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

"I said that the dude who runs the place was..." Luna began, but then trailed off as she saw Lori leaving. "Hey, where are you going?"

"To give that creep a piece of my mind! That's where!" Lori said, storming back into the store.

An anxious feeling began to creep its way inside of Luna and she followed her sister. It was already too late to stop her from reentering the store, but if she moved quickly enough, maybe she could still put the brakes on her efforts. Past experiences had proven that when Lori gave somebody a piece of her mind, it usually led into a heated argument. Lori won a vast majority of them of course, but this time Luna wasn't so confident in her older sister's ability to come out on top.

Back inside of the store, Luna saw Lori confronting a nearby clerk. An teenage girl, more or less Leni's age if Luna were to guess, with her long auburn hair tied back into a single french braid. Lori tapped the girl on the shoulder, who then turned and greeted Lori with a friendly smile.

"Hello there." she said. "Is there something I can assist you with?"

"I'd like to speak with your manager." Lori replied. "I have a complaint."

"Oh, I'm sorry. But my manager just stepped into the office to make a call. I don't know how long he's going to be. What seems to be the problem?"

"Your manager _is_ the problem!" Lori snapped. "My little sister just told me that he went up to her and accused her of stealing! Is that how you treat your customers in here?"

The girl's eyes moved briefly over to Luna before returning to meet Lori's gaze. A sheepish smile came to her face and she let out a nervous laugh.

"Right, about that...I'm afraid that I'm the one to blame. I reported your sister to my boss after I saw her acting suspiciously. I also overheard her talking with that little girl in the overalls. Something about 'making a distraction'?"

"Distraction?" Lori repeated, turning to look at Luna. "Is that why Lana showed Leni the tarantula?"

Luna nodded. "Kinda. I saw Sam and wanted to avoid her. So Lans offered to help me out. I wasn't trying to take anything, I swear!"

"Well there you go." Lori said, crossing her arms and looking at the female store clerk. "All she was doing was trying to avoid someone who doesn't like her. And that is literally not a crime."

"Yeah!" Leni added, stepping up beside Luna. "She wrote a love letter to that girl over there and she got rejected."

"You didn't need to tell her that much, sis." Luna mumbled, looking down at the floor.

"So, what you're saying is that you were just trying to avoid someone who was in the store. And that same someone is your crush, who turned you down and broke your heart?" the clerk asked.

"Pretty much, yeah." Luna said.

"Wow, that's a new one. Anyway, I'm sorry to say that there really isn't much I can do. My boss was only doing his job. But, if you happened to find his customer service to be unsatisfactory, feel free to comment about it in our online survey."

"Oh, trust me, I plan on it." Lori said, pulling an index card and pen from her purse. "What site do I go to for the survey?"

The clerk gave Lori the web address and Lori thanked her. She then called for the rest of her siblings to let them know they were heading out and then made her way to the door. Luna turned to leave as well, but she stopped when she noticed something. The female clerk they were just speaking with was looking her up and down. When she noticed that Luna saw her, she gave her a smile.

"Hey, I know that it's not my business or anything. But that girl who rejected you? I think she made a mistake. So don't let it keep bugging you, it's her loss."

"Uhh, thanks?" Luna said, blushing as she slowly stepped backwards. "Anyway, I gotta be heading out now. Later."

Luna turned and quickly walked to the exit, her cheeks still burning a little bit. Once she was again outside of the store, she took a moment to take a breath. And as she regained her composure, she found the rest of her siblings filing out of the store as well. Lori and Leni stepped up to her, Lori looking at her with a mix of mild disappointment and annoyance.

"What?" Luna asked of her older sister, unsure of what she had done to cross the older girl.

"Um, hello?" Lori said. "Is there any reason in particular for why you didn't just give that girl your phone number?"

"Why would I do that?" Luna questioned.

"Are you kidding?" Leni asked. "She was totes flirting with you just now!"

"She literally was." Lori said, nodding in agreement. "Plus, she was checking you out too. I know you saw her doing that. Here..." She took an index card from her purse and jotted down Luna's cell phone number. "Take this, head back inside and find her. Then just hand it to her and say, 'Excuse me, but I think you dropped this.' Got it?"

"Ooh, and then give her a wink! Like this!" Leni added, demonstrating the gesture for her younger sister.

"I...I can't do that!" Luna squeaked out, her blush returning and overtaking her entire face.

Lori sighed. "So you can stand up on a stage, in front of a huge audience to perform pretty much any musical act imaginable. But when it comes to going up to just one stranger and asking them out, you suddenly get scared?"

Luna said nothing in response. She only rubbed her arm and looked at the floor, as if something much more interesting were taking place down there. Lori, realizing that her little sister wasn't going to answer her, just crossed her arms and sighed again.

"What are we going to do with you, Luna Loud?"

"I thought we were taking her shopping." Leni answered, a slightly confused look on her face.

Lori facepalmed.

"You know what? You're right, Leni. That's why we're here." Luna said, grateful for the change in subject. " So, what store should we go to next? Your pick."

A delighted squeal escaped the bubbly blonde and then Luna felt her wrist being shackled in an iron grip. The next thing she knew, she was being practically dragged off towards whatever place Leni had in mind. The other nine siblings trying to keep up with them, but ultimately fell behind as Leni sped of with Luna in tow. Fortunately for Luna, they soon arrived at their destination, a clothing store by the name of Forever 18. There was a momentary pause as Leni stopped to admire an outfit in the window display before dashing inside, Luna stumbling along awkwardly behind her.

The inside of the store was so nice it made Luna feel a little uncomfortable. A place like this was not her usual go to when it came to shopping for new duds. But if this was where Leni wanted to shop, then she wasn't about to argue. She knew she could trust her sister's judgement with clothing. If fashion were a class at school, Leni would have a guaranteed **A+**.

Luna felt Leni let go of her wrist. Then Leni stepped aside and began to look around the store. She began to pick out various articles of clothing one at a time, holding them up in front of Luna to get an idea of how they'd look on her. A few of them were neatly placed back where Leni had found them, but the rest were given to Luna to hold. And as the clothes slowly piled up, the rest of the Loud siblings had caught up and entered the store as well. They found the two easily enough, Lori approaching Luna and smiling at all of the things she was holding.

"I see you two have gotten a good start. But I'm surprised that hasn't found more than that already."

"Please don't give her ideas." Luna whispered. "Don't get me wrong, I appreciate this and all, but...am I really gonna have to try all of this stuff on?"

Lori smirked. "If it were any other day, then yes, you would. But since we're trying to keep to a time limit, we can let her pick out some more and then you can choose what you like best to try on. Then we'll just buy whatever you want after that. Sound like a plan?"

Luna nodded, "Okay, but I'm not going crazy with this. Just a couple of things and that's all."

"That's fine." Lori said. "But just so you know, Leni and I planned out our route and we're going to be hitting up some more stores to do more clothes shopping. We'll also be heading to American Falcon, Old Cerulean, Albertson and Fletch, Mango Republic and The Rift. Plus some shoe stores. Leni won't let you get a new outfit without some new shoes to go with it."

"And my guess is it's gonna be pretty much the same thing at all of those places?" Luna asked.

"Pretty much." Lori admitted, smiling softly. "Just do your best to go with it, okay? I know Leni can get a bit overexcited with shopping. But that's just because it's her passion. Like with you and music. Besides, you know she's doing this because she cares about you."

"Yeah, I know."

Leni returned to Luna's side once more with some new tops to add to the already large selection. She smiled, highly satisfied with her finds and led Luna over to the changing rooms. The rest of the siblings followed and made themselves comfortable while Leni found an available room for Luna to use.

"Okay, you pick out something to try on and I'll be right back."

At first Luna thought she was going to start looking for more things for her to try on, but then Leni suddenly went off and approached a blonde girl. Said girl seemed to be about their age and was busily folding some jeans; clearly someone who worked at the store. Leni tapped her on the shoulder and when the girl turned, Luna saw a nametag on her top, confirming her suspicions. Leni must've wanted to ask her for help finding something.

"Hi. You work here, right? Could I ask you something?" Leni said.

"Sure, what can I help you with?" the girl, who's nametag read 'Amy', asked.

"Are you into girls?"

The next few moments were filled with an awkward silence, Leni being the only one oblivious to it. She stood and smiled while waiting politely for a response. Luna gaped at how direct her older sister had been with her question. And she also began to have a sneaking suspicion as to why Leni had asked it. Amy, the sales clerk, needed a moment to process what she had just heard.

"I...I'm sorry?" she asked, clearly confused from Leni's completely out of the blue question.

"Do you like girls?" Leni repeated. "My little sister over there is into girls and I'm trying to find something nice for her to wear. Something she can wear on a first date. And it would help to get the opinion from a girl who also likes girls. You know, to tell her how nice she looks."

"Well..." Amy began, a bit hesitant due to the lingering awkwardness of the situation. "I'm not attracted to girls. But that doesn't mean that I can't help you out. After all, I don't need to like another girl that way to know whether or not she looks good wearing this or that."

"Oh, yeah, that makes sense." Leni said. "It's just too bad you aren't into girls. My sister would probably be totes into you. She's over here."

Leni led Amy back over to where Luna and the others were waiting. Luna, face flushed beet red, had to hide her embarassment behind the pile of clothing she was carrying. She leaned over towards Lori, hoping to vent some of her emotions.

"Dude, can you beleive she just tried to set me up with some random girl?" Luna whispered.

"She's only trying to help." Lori quietly replied. "Besides, she has a good idea. You still need to work on approaching someone to ask them out. And modeling new outfits for a stranger can help you build up that confidence."

"I have plently of confidence around strangers, Lori." Luna muttered back.

"Is that so? Then you can go back to the pet store again and give that one girl your number like I told you to?"

Luna seemed to tense up momentarily before she chose to simply excuse herself and head into the changing room. Lori smiled and shook her head a little. There was still a lot of progress for Luna to make when it came to dating. But that would be something to deal with at another time. Right now it seemed that she'd need to keep proceeding with their current plan before they could move onto anything else just yet.

 _'We'll get you through this, Luna.'_ Lori thought. _'Even if we need to go one baby step at a time, we'll make it happen. But after that, we're literally finding you a girlfriend.'_

 **End of Part 4.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Beating the Blues Part 5)**

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own the Loud House and make no money from this story.

Luna sat back on the bench and let out a sigh of relief. It felt good to finally get to sit down and just breathe for a minute. Ever since Leni had taken charge, things had been almost nonstop. Each store had taken up several minutes while Leni was finding things for Luna to try on and then even more time was occupied as Luna tried on one thing after the other, all the while getting the opinions of her siblings. And that was just looking through clothes. There had been a similar venture to look through new shoes for her as well and Luna was so very grateful that there weren't as many shoe stores in the mall as there were clothing stores. Otherwise she may not have been able to endure it.

"Okay, so now we need to find some cute accessories to go with your new outfits!" Leni chirped. "There's this nice little kiosk that has some really cute stuff over by that book store over there. Let's go!"

Leni took Luna by the hand and encouraged her to stand up again. The younger girl resisted a little bit, still wanting to take a break. That, and to find a way to politely let her sister know that she wasn't exactly interested in continuing shopping at the moment. In fact, she was more than done with with looking for new clothes to wear for a good, long while.

"Actually...I was thinking that maybe we could do something else." Luna said after slight hesitation. "It isn't that I don't want to keep shopping with you sis, but I need to still do everyone else's stuff too. We can save that for another time if you want."

"Ohmygosh, I totes forgot about everyone else's turns!" Leni gasped. "I'm sorry you guys. I wasn't trying to make you wait or anything! I just got caught up with trying to help Luna find nice things to wear! I _really_ want her to look good on Monday when she goes back to school!"

"That's okay Leni. Don't worry about it." Lori said. "Besides, I think Luna will have more than enough choices for what to wear on Monday. But now we should let Lynn take her turn. Or we can go get something to eat really quick at the food court first."

"I'm okay with that." Lynn said, raising her hand. "Luna and I can talk about what to look for at the skate shop while we chow down."

The group began making their way to the food court, taking a nearby up escalator. Luna looked the bags of different new clothing and shoes she had accumulated over the course of her shopping spree with Leni. Despite the ordeal she had gone through to get them all, she did feel pretty good about the selections they had made. She had never really put too much thought into shopping for clothes before, but now she kind of felt like she better understood why Leni loved it so much. Maybe she'd even consider inviting her along the next time she wanted to pick up some new threads

Maybe.

After another couple of minutes of walking, the siblings arrived at the food court. They found a table and got situated while some of them tried to figure out just what it was that they wanted to eat. And as Luna looked around, she took notice of a familiar face who was seated three tables away from her.

"Dang it!" She said, pushing her seat back to hide behind Lori. "She's here!"

Lori turned to face the direction that Luna had been looking in and scowled. She had been more preoccupied with the desire to talk to the manager earlier at the pet store, but now that it was just them sitting in the food court, she felt like giving someone else a piece of her mind. But out of respect for Luna's wishes, Lori pushed that thought aside for the time being. The whole reason they were there in the first place was to help Luna get over Sam, so there would be no point in confronting the girl now, even though it would be oh so satisfying to give her an earful. That would be for the next time Lori saw her at school on Monday. And she was going to see to it that they bumped into one another. Even if it meant Lori had to go out of her way to do so. But for the time being...

"Don't worry about it." Lori said, putting one hand on Luna's shoulder. "You just sit back and relax. One of us can go grab you something to eat while you keep our of her sight. Then we can have someone stay with you and we'll go get our own food."

"Nah, it's fine." Luna said, leaning over and putting her elbow on the table while leaning forward, laying her chin in her palm. "If she sees me then whatever. I just was hoping to wait until I was ready to talk to her before seeing her again."

Luna sighed and started to drum the fingers of her other hand against the table. The change in her mood did not go unnoticed by any of her siblings. Lori put her arm around Luna and pulled her in for a hug, squeezing her gently. Luna leaned into it, resting her head on her big sister's shoulder and letting out another sigh.

"It's going to be okay Luna." Lori said in a soft voice. "You'll see. Just give it some time and things will start to feel normal again."

"That's the thing." Luna said. "I've been thinking about it and I'm worried about my other friends at school. With things being like they are between me and Sam, do you think that maybe they wouldn't want to hang with me anymore?"

"That's literally ridiculous."

"Yeah, and even if that is the case then don't let it get to you." Luan said. "Because if they didn't want to hang out with you anymore because of this, then they don't deserve to be your friends."

Another sigh came from Luna in response to her sister's words. She was making a lot of sense, but it didn't change the fact that if she did lose her friends due to what was going on between her and Sam, it would really bite. Getting rejected by her crush was bad enough, she didn't want to lose her buds on top of it too. Just thinking about it got her completely bummed out all over again. She leaned onto the table, crossing her arms and then rested her chin on top of them, her eyes staring blankly the smooth, clean surface in front of her.

Lori stood up and grabbed her purse. "Okay, so let's get some food." she said, breaking the uneasy silence that had been forming. "Luna, what do you want to eat? It's my treat so feel free to pick anything."

"I dunno. Just whatever I guess." Luna said, shrugging a little.

"Okay, I'll surprise you then. Leni, keep an eye on everyone while I go to get Luna and myself some food. Be right back."

She left and while they waited for her return the siblings started to chat with one another. Except for Luna, who started to softly drum her fingers while she kept staring at the tabletop. Luan tried to get her to join in her conversation with Leni about the different movies that were currently playing, wanting to help Luna figure out which one she'd want to see. But Luna was oblivious to her little sister's attempts at first. It wasn't until Luan gently nudged her that she realized the other brunette was speaking to her.

"Huh...wha?" Luna blurted out, her head snapping up a bit.

"There you are." Luan said, cracking a smirk. "I was starting to think we lost you for a moment."

Luna rested her head again. "Sorry. Wasn't tryin' to ignore ya."

Luan stared as her roommate almost immediately returned to her melancholic daze. Her brow furrowed and she stood up, a determined expression on her face. She walked around the table, passing by Leni on her way.

"I'll be right back." She said. "I need to take care of something."

"Okay. But make sure you use one of those seat cover thingies." Leni said, her nose wrinkling a tiny bit. "The bathrooms here are totes gross!"

"That's not what I was going to do." Luan said.

"So, like, where are you going?" Leni asked.

"There's a store not too far from here that has a few pranking items." Luan answered. "It's not Fanny's, but it does have what I need. I'm just going to go get a stink bomb and one of those little fart-machines. With a little tweaking, I can make it so the fart noise it makes is not so 'modest'. Add the stink bomb with the right timing and a certain heart-breaking someone will be the laughing stock of the entire food court!"

Those last words were more than enough to snap Luna out of her mopey mood. She sat upright again and gave her sister a stern glare. Luan was taken a bit aback by this, but once that passed she met Luna's glare with her own. Although hers was more defiant than stern.

"It's just one little prank." Luan said. "That's all. Please let me do this for you."

"No dude." Luna replied. "I already told you that I don't want you to do that! I'll handle it on Monday, when I'm ready to face her myself!"

"And are you sure that you'll be ready to face Sam on Monday?" Luan countered.

"Um, hello?" Leni said, waving her hand to get the attention of her younger sisters. "What do you think we did all that shopping for? Of course Luna is going to be ready on Monday. She is gonna look totes amazing!"

"What are you talking about?" Lynn asked, quirking an eyebrow at Leni.

Leni smiled. "It's to help with her confidence. If Luna looks good then she will feel good about herself. And if she feels good about herself then she won't have any problems going to school, even though she's gonna end up seeing Sam. When Sam sees how good Luna is doing, she might realize that all that mean stuff she said didn't bug Luna at all and she'll leave Luna alone. Plus, Luna might get some attention from someone else too. Maybe even get asked out."

"Uh-huh." Lynn said. "So, what if Sam isn't impressed and gives Luna trouble?"

"Oh, that's easy." Leni answered. "That's when we let Luan prank her so bad she'll want to drop out of school."

"Dude!" Luna gasped. "Seriously?!"

"What?" Leni asked. "She would deserve it. No one should get away with messing with my little sister."

"But..."

"No 'buts' Luna." Leni said. "She crossed a line. If she tries to do it again, she needs to be taught a lesson. No one gets away with hurting my sisters. Oh, or my brother. Love you Linky!"

Leni ruffled the white locks of the only boy at the table, making him feel slightly embarrassed. Luna tried to continue what she was saying just a moment before, but Leni wouldn't have it. She pressed her finger to Luna's lips and shushed her, much to the rocker's dislike. Luna let it go and instead turned her thoughts towards Monday and just what she would say when the time came to face Sam. The idea of doing it now wasn't as much of a bother as it had been before, but Luna still had some big concerns.

What would she even say to the other girl when the time came? How would she say it? Luna didn't want to get abrasive, even though she probably had a right to be. But she couldn't just go up to Sam like she usually would. No matter how she went about it, she knew things were going to be tough getting the point across to the other girl. And telling her how uncool she had been wasn't the only thing Luna was considering. A part of her felt like she ought to mention how her sisters and brother felt about it too.

Luna wasn't sure why, but she felt like she needed to tell Sam that because...because Sam needed to know. She needed to let Sam know what her siblings thought about this whole ordeal. But would Sam even care? Would she think of it as more of a threat than a warning? Should she even care about how Sam feels about her sisters and brother being ticked off about what happened?

It was really hard for Luna to say. Deep down, she wanted to just give in and let go of whatever it was that was keeping her from just turning a blind eye to what her siblings wanted to do. Lori would try to confront Sam and chew her out, most likely with Leni by her side. Luan would not hesitate to prank Sam at every turn, even if it meant suspension from school or maybe even getting in trouble with the cops. It wouldn't be Luan's first time having someone call the police on her for a prank. And something told Luna that Luan wouldn't care if it happened again so long as Sam got what she felt the other girl had coming.

But did she have it coming? There was no doubt in Luna's mind that something had to be done, but she really couldn't decide what. She was still having a hard time believing that Sam had really written her that letter. There was no way that someone so cool could do something so harsh. But...maybe Luna just didn't know Sam as well as she had thought she did. It could be that she had never gotten to see that side of the girl before. Maybe that would be where she would start. She'd just go up and ask Sam if she was always so bogus and just good at hiding it from people.

...Nah, that still didn't seem like a good way to start the conversation. She really felt like she should give Sam a chance before getting hostile. But she did plan on saving that line for when, or hopefully only if, that should happen.

"Are you moping? Literally after we've been doing nice stuff for you all day?" Lori asked, having returned to the table.

"Wha? No, I was...okay maybe a little bit." Luna admitted. "But only because..."

"No 'buts' little sister." Lori cut in. "You're here to have a good time with us and that means no more thinking about you-know-who. Now eat your cake and be happy."

Lori set down a plate with a slice of a three layer red velvet cake with cream cheese icing. She stuck a plastic fork into the slice and nudged the plate closer to Luna. Luna, in turn, stared at the dessert before giving Lori a questioning look.

"Not that I don't appreciate it sis, but don't you think I've had enough junk food for one day?"

"It's not junk food, it's comfort food." Lori stated before turning to the rest of their siblings. "Okay, you guys you know the drill. Our usual divide and conquer routine. Anyone who wants something from the Pizza Shed comes with me. Go with Luan for McDaniels and Leni if you want Kountry Fried Chicken. And I'd like to ask someone to stay and keep Luna company until the rest of us get back from getting our food."

"I'll do it!" Lincoln volunteered, raising his hand. "Could you get me a slice of pepperoni and a cola?"

"Only if you finish that sentence first." Lori said.

"Oh, I meant could you get me a slice of pepperoni and a cola, please?"

Lori nodded. "That's better. Luna? Before we go to get our food, is there anything else you might want to eat or drink?"

"Just a soda." Luna said, taking only a moment to think. "Root beer. I don't think I should eat anything else. If I keep pigging out I might not be able to fit into any of the new clothes Leni helped me pick out today."

"Then I'll get you a diet root beer if they have it. And a slice of pizza too, just in case you change your mind. Be back in a few."

All of the Loud children separated to go to their restaurants of choice, leaving Luna and Lincoln alone at the table. Lincoln moved over to sit next to Luna while the rest of their sisters were up and about. He seemed like he had something on his mind, but wasn't quite sure if he wanted to talk about it. Luna noticed this after a moment longer of watching him silently debating with himself.

"Something up, bro?"

"Yeah, kinda." Lincoln answered. "But it's not really my business, so don't worry about it."

"It's okay, Linc. You got something you want to say, then just go ahead and say it. I doubt it will bug me."

Lincoln rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah...but...it might bug Lori if she finds out I asked."

"Then we just won't tell her that you did. It'll be just between the two of us. That cool with you?"

"Sounds good to me." Lincoln said, raising his right hand with the pinkie extended. "Shall we make it official?"

Luna smirked and extended her own pinkie so she could lock it with his. "Done! So, what is it you want to know, little bro?"

"I was just wondering...about Sam..." he said with some hesitation.

"What about her?"

"Well, it's just that you still seem really bothered by what happened. And I get it, she was pretty mean to you. But wouldn't that make it easier to just forget about her?"

"Dude, I _wish_ it was as easy as that." Luna said, "But when it comes to someone like her, I dunno. At first I just felt all messed up inside. And now I just keep thinking that I just didn't know her as well as I had thought. It's just hard to do that since I never guessed she would treat me so badly. It feels like she's a completely different person now."

"I can kinda understand how you feel. Back when Ronnie Anne used to bully me all the time, I didn't think she was anything other than a mean girl who couldn't find anything better to do with her time. But after I made friends with her, I started to learn things about her that I wouldn't have ever dared to guess. Although, for me I made friends with someone who was mean to me. You sorta have the opposite going on."

"Yeah...I guess I do..." Luna said, poking at her cake with her fork.

"So...um, what kind of person did you think Sam was?" Lincoln asked. "Just curious."

A soft smile came to Luna's face, a dreamy look to her eyes. "She is...was the coolest person I knew. She loves animals, she volunteers at the senior center, has a really good sense of humor, a cute laugh, and she was just always fun to be around. I even started getting to school earlier than normal just so I could meet up with her and hang out until homeroom."

"Plus she shares your love of music, right?" Lincoln added.

Luna nodded. "Yeah. One of us would almost always bring music up anytime we talked. She's as big a fan of rock as I am. Having a jam sesh with her was always a blast. It feels kinda messed up that I won't be doing that anymore."

She sighed for what felt like the hundredth time that day. Lincoln wanted to say something to help her cheer up again, but wasn't able to find the right words. Fortunately the silence was broken by the return of Lana and Leni from Kountry Fried Chicken. Lana was already digging into her food, tossing pieces of popcorn chicken up into the air and catching them in her mouth. They rejoined their brother and sister at the table, Lana holding out her box of chicken to Luna.

"Want some?"

"Nah, I'm good. Thanks anyway, Lans."

"Are you sure?" Lana asked, shaking the box gently. "I already ate half of them, the rest will be gone soon. Last chance."

"Okay, if you insist. I'll have a few." Luna said, reaching for some of the popcorn chicken.

"And I'll be right back." Lincoln said, pushing his chair back a little. "I need to go the bathroom."

"Don't forget to use one of those seat cover thingies!" Leni said as Lincoln began to walk away from the table.

"I don't need one, I just have to pee." Lincoln replied.

"Like, why should that make a difference?" Leni asked.

"Because I'm a boy and boys can stand up sometimes when they use the bathroom."

"Yeah and you forget to lift the seat. _All of the time._ " Lana said, grinning. "At least practice not making a mess while you're in there!"

Luna let out a quick laugh at the younger girl's statement. Lincoln however did not find it as amusing and just started shaking his head as he walked away. Once he felt he was far enough from the table, he looked around to make sure none of his other sisters might see him. With the coast clear, he started to take a long detour through the many tables in the food court to get around back to where he had started. Only he wasn't going to the table where his sisters would be waiting for him. He was looking for a table that was close by. A table where a certain someone who had broken his big sister's heart was sitting.

From where he was standing, Lincoln saw not only Sam, but two of the other teens Luna would sometimes bring over to the house to hang out and play music in the garage. He couldn't remember their names off the top of his head, not that it really mattered since they weren't his focus at the time. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed the one person he knew he could rely on for assistance in any situation.

"Come in One-eyed Jack, do you read me?"

 **End of part 5.**


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